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Lehmann and Scoles honored by American Physical Society

Posted December 16, 2002; 05:52 p.m.

by quinones

The American Physical Society has awarded its Earle Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy to Princeton faculty members Kevin Lehmann and Giacinto Scoles.

Lehmann and Scoles, both professors in the Department of
Chemistry
, received the award for developing and applying an innovative method of studying individual atoms and molecules.

Their technique, called "optothermal molecular beam spectroscopy," surpassed the sensitivity of conventional spectroscopy, which involves passing a beam of light through a gas and measuring how the molecules absorb parts of the light spectrum. Instead of measuring light absorption, Lehmann and Scoles measured how much heat the substance acquired from the laser.

The award also honored them for using extremely small droplets of liquid helium as a medium for improving the spectroscopy of other atoms and molecules.

The American Physical Society will present the Plyler Prize at a special ceremonial session of its March 2003 meeting in Austin, Texas.